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ppgrainbow — Tracing is Legal
Published: 2009-02-13 20:29:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 7415; Favourites: 92; Downloads: 0
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Description
This is my first submission for the 2009 calendar year and before you start slamming me and making further gross misrepresentations in regards to this stamp about tracing and I am only neutral on the issue:Tracing is legal under the most circumstances and dA has professional lawyers who clearly investigated the issue. They found that it's okay to do it as long as:
1. It belongs only in the Fanart category.
2. Proper credit is given to the original artist. This includes permission and linking back to the original artwork.
3. No profit is ever made out of traced imagery at all.
4. The artist who traced the drawing has no intention to claim the image as their own. Otherwise, it's considered art theft and misrepresentation.
5. The original artist doesn't object towards the said deviant who traced the image. The original artist has every right to report it to the admins if they object and have it removed.
Many professional artists do not like people who trace their art as it is considered an insult to them if it's reused elsewhere.
Please DO NOT brand deviants who trace drawings as copiers in their entirety. Copying art in its entirety can be seen as theft and misrepresentation.
Comments on this stamp are closed. The reason is that only a small percentage of users agree in a neutralised matter. Totally disagreeing with this matter on the legality of tracing is unfortunate.
I cannot stress to the fullest extent that if you are unable to deal with it, then there are other websites where you can post your artwork.
If you still have a problem with this, I suggest that you note me privately.
If you are a subscriber, you can put this in your journal or shoutboard by using : thumb112764560 : somewhere in the field.
Stamp template (c) 2005 ~deviantStamps and $liquisoft .
Stamp template can be found here .
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Comments: 317
Oh, another thing, you're a lazy fuck if you trace to learn, that is just a pitty excuse.
An artist is the one who can work and improve on its own, an artist does not need someone else to give them a picture, a pose, or idea for them to copy.
Tracers, even when doing it "right" are plain pathetic.
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Well said!
It seems that you forgot to put that comment in.
By the way, your avatar looks pretty cute!
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You are disturbingly nice 
Thank you.
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Tracing, when you have asked for (and receieved) permission from the original artist, given credit and DO NOT PROFIT from the image, is legal - perfectly fine if you wanna go do that shit and ruin your creativity and make yourself dull.
Tracing, does not help you improve. At all. It actually makes you improve a lot slower and it gets harder and harder to have your own style, you will most likely end up using other people's styles in the end.
Tracing, as a way of learning, done legally, is not a good way. Why ? Because if you want to learn from tracing, you're gonna have to ask for a LOT of permission, a lot will be denied - in the end, you won't get enough images with permission in an amount of time decent enough to call it "progress" or "learning", it doesn't count as a learning method.
Tracing, as a way of learning, done illegaly, may make you improve - since you'll be taking and tracing as many pictures as you want, not caring about permission nor credit. But you're doing illegal shit.
Not submitting to the internet doesn't matter.
You'd be a thief, a low life.
Finally, the reason why people would like dA to ban traces, is because this place is filled with immature/ignorant people who do not understand nor respect the fact they need to ask for permission and credit.
Browse and gather 100 traced images.
I asure you 80 or more will be illegal.
Of those, 60 or more will be "denying they traced".
And of those, there will be a great amount which will be used for profit - either for pins, prints, commissions, etc.
That is the main issue.
I'm fine with you tracing (though I do not accept it as a learning method) as long as you ask for permission, get permission, credit and don't profit (unless you got permission from the artist for that).
If you don't do anything of those, I'm burning your ass.
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preach it , brother!! i agree 100%
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~angelishi , you have a very valid and fair point regarding the tracing issue.
That is what dA needs to do is to clarify this mess and without getting the CORRECT message towards other deviants, they just won't educate themselves at all.
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What I don't get is why they allow traced screenshots or scans...
It ain't like people can get permission from the anime producers 
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That is what a lot of people don't understand and are frustrated this way.
People shouldn't profit from traced screenshots either.
I'm pretty sure that once certain user will inform the anime producer and file a complaint if they cannot allow it on dA.
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DA could make it whar you can put the refrince that you yoused like HF dose
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It might be a way to learn, but it's not the only way and in fact it's not really the proper way.
And if the artist clearly mentiones that he/she does not want his/her works traced then maybe it's legal to trace it as long as one gives credit and never actually gets caught, but it's still immoral.
I think one should ask the original artist first.
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That' correct. It's always good to ask for credit.
Unfortunately, a lot of proprietary/professional artists have mentioned crystal clearly that they don't want their artwork posted on someone's account and they include tracing.
It's their right to get the traced artwork removed and try to punish the user who traced their drawing in the first place.
Deviants shouldn't take down their works, over this frustration, because they can't deal with it...that is even if they have a right to do so.
Good comment, btw.
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Indeed taking art down or leaving DA is not the answer.
though another thing that frustrates some people (mostly a friend of mine) is the fact that traced art is treated more gently when it's in the fanart category so she is quite annoyed that worked fanart (original post and 100% her work) would be put in the same category as traced art. I'm not sure how I think about this, since I don't do much fanart myself, but it seems correct to me to put traced art in fanart.
What I'm not really understanding is the reason of putting traced art here, if it's done for learning (I do understand that many people use this as a learning tool at the beggining). I believe one should practice both tracing and freehand at the same time, but just post original art here.
Copyright is still a troubled domain and in my country it's worse (so many people don't understand it's wrong to take an image from "google images" and use it). So I really can't get into the legal disscussion.
Thank you for understanding my point of view.
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I agree. There are a LOT of people who don't like to see other deviants trace others work. Tracing is just a learning tool, but it's a very good idea to post original art.
You're are very welcome for the nice comment, I appreciate your thoughts. ^_^
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i've been accused of tracing many times, and even though i don't trace, i don't see that much wrong with it, only claiming a trace as your own is the wrong act, but tracing its self is a great way to learn how to draw and how to improve
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I know how you feel...it doesn't make anyone feel right when they get accused of tracing or even art theft without clarifying the whole story.
Tracing even if it's immortal to some users, is a great way to learn how to draw and improve until you have the capability to create artworks on your own.
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some people just get out of hand with it
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Yeah. I might have to edit the description this deviation for more clarification from some helpful users, because it seems that I didn't get it right.
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everything looked fine to me
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Yeah. I bet that it did.
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Goes without saying that without tracing there would be no satire or parodies either. That type of humor escapes some people.
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Hehe. You have one good point there. ^^
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I became good at Puff style because of tracing. At first, I had trouble getting the proportions right (especially the heads). Then, I started tracing stock pics and screenshots and in a few years, that helped me improve so much that after a few years, I got bold enough to try it again. The results of that are the first drawings I ever displayed here.
The first pic I made, of Blossom playing her guitar a seen in Mime for a Change, was at first a traced pic. I then decided to make a second version and replace that for the old, traced pic. Even though those pics were made not long after eachother, the change is obvious. Too bad I lost the first version of said pic...
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Correct. This is a good debate. Certain people do trace on this site in order to learn how to be a good artist and once they become good, they don't trace anymore.
I appreciate your comment.
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I see tracing as a beginner's tool more than anything else. If it helps you get a style down right, by all means use it. But I don't think you should be relying on JUST tracing to become good at art.
It took me a while to break free from that habit (3 years), but once I did and found other ways of improving my style, I no longer needed it. Plus, it's quite a painstaking job to perfectly trace a pic. I remember spending hours tracing a single screenshot.
BTW, I did find a different pic I once traced:
[link] original screenshot
[link] traced version
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Correct. It's going to take a while to break free from the habit of tracing artwork this way. It can be very hard for a newbie artist, but in the long run, breaking free from tracing will help them become good artists someday.
Thanks for the links to the images in question. I appreciate it.
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not going to slam you it just sometimes DA staff are itching then comes down to trace art
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welcome anytime 
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Yep. dA is trying to stay money hungry in order to survive the credit crunch.
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money for walstreet "sigh"
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Yep. The $800 billion stimulus package got passed and it's expected to be signed into law by the President.
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yes it be sign just hope it does something to get this country out of this hell hole
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Yep. I'm hoping that the economy will recover by the second half of this year and that the tracing dilemma becomes less of a issue.
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that be good then things would pickup and improve by then instead of going down hill more ?butt i don't think it be that easy since Reps have the last word
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Yep. Rather than continue tracing as a bad habit, it would be best to use anime/manga artbooks for offline use.
I'll bet that it will take months, if not years for someone to get good at drawing.
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better use indeed would help learn the basic of drawing and help rid some trace art or the controversy around it,
useful it takes time to get use too it
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I agree.
I'm just tired of the incivility and disrespect on this site. I don't want to see anymore people leave or get banned from dA.
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i know it never gets any better,i feel the same way it shouldn't be like that?they have a right to enjoy da just as much as i or you do
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Yeah. I do like enjoying dA, but I don't like it when people get made at me for something that they're grossly misrepresented and don't understand. ^^
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i know everyone gets mad to easy people need to relax more.
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Yep. People need to relax and calm down.
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indeed not get to work up over something simple?
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Yeah. I'm pretty glad that things are starting to settle down right now.
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so am i people are moving on with they life
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